1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an educational device and particularly a device for use in the dental hygiene field to teach and assist professionals and patients in the most proper and efficient techniques for cleaning and maintaining teeth and gums with brushes, floss and other implements.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Objectives of the Invention
Health professionals in the dental field are constantly learning and teaching suitable methods of cleaning and maintaining human teeth and gums. Various aids are now available to patients such as prototypes formed from clear, solid plastic of human teeth, charts, photographs, descriptive literature, video presentations and other materials. With such modern educational tools, dental hygiene information has had tremendous dissemination in recent years but even so, many patients are still unable to properly clean and maintain their teeth and gums between dental visits due to, among other things, their lack of knowledge and understanding of their teeth structure and the proper use of a toothbrush and floss to obtain adequate oral hygiene. In teaching patients how to brush and floss, models are often employed which can increase awareness in the patient's mind of certain problem areas in the mouth. Even so, conventional models having teeth formed of a clear, solid plastic generally only allow the patient to view the outside surfaces of the teeth and gums due in part to the brush itself obstructing the tooth surface being cleaned. Thus, patients oftentimes do not carry out the necessary maintenance tasks to their best advantage since they lack a clear understanding of how to accomplish the desired goals.
With this background in mind, the present invention was conceived and one of its objectives is to provide a dental educational device which includes hollow transparent teeth which will allow the patient to view the cleaning action of a brush or other implement through the side walls of the teeth to help the patient better understand dental hygiene techniques and to convince patients of the results obtained and necessity of proper cleaning.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a dental educational device whereby the tops or a top and portion of a side of the teeth are removable so a patient can see from the inside of the tooth the exact contact being made between the tooth and gums with the bristles of a toothbrush or other instrument.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide an educational device which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and yet which can be conveniently and easily handled by a technician or patient.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description of the invention is presented below.